A guy I know who gets around has seen “almost all” of Tim Burton‘s Dark Shadows. He reports the following: “While it has Beetlejuice elements, this is not a broad comedy. It’s a gothic romance with strong farcical elements, but the trailer makes it seem like Love at First Bite and it definitely is not.

“Johnny Depp‘s Barnabas Collins has a bit of a Chauncey Gardner quality as a fish out of water, and there are even elements of H.G. Wells from Time After Time as far as a cultured character trying to fit into a drastically changed society. The anachronism-based humor does work quite well. The film is funny, but it also has full-bodied horror elements. Barnabas does kill people in this and when he engages on a full-out war against Angelique (Eva Green), the evil witch who cursed him, they’re playing for keeps and it’s a bloody battle.

“In short there’s more of the Burton Sweeney Todd than the trailer implies. This is not Burton’s Addams Family, but a successful amalgamation of his comedic and gothic horror styles.”

Oh, and Michelle Pfeiffer‘s performance as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (the mother of Chloe Moretz‘s Carolyn, who reminds me in the trailer of Winona Ryder‘s character in Beetlejuice) is “her strongest work in years.”